Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens support this motion. The recent rise in attacks on childcare centres, on homes and on synagogues is to be condemned. Antisemitism has no place in our country. Hate has no place in our country. Violence and racism of any kind have no place in our country. I've had members of the Jewish community say to me recently that they oppose the invasion of Gaza, they oppose the occupation, they oppose what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing and they participated in peaceful protests but that the recent attacks are having an effect on them. I want them to know that we hear that here in parliament and there is universal support to say that antisemitism has no place in this country.

There have been mentions from other members in this place about the longstanding roots of antisemitism. I remember, together with other members of our community in Victoria, seeing the terror and the horror in 2021 when neo-Nazi groups gathered in the Grampians and we started to see the far right and white supremacists start to feel so emboldened that they could gather together publicly. For many of us, that represented a significant moment, following on the heels of the rise of the far right generally, that required some action. We in Victorian parliament moved for an inquiry into the rise and resurgence of the far right in Australia, which found a year later that sadly there has been a resurgence, and it's something that, back at the time, ASIO and our security agencies—

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